Nothing says "freedom" like a tool that costs tens of thousands to buy and thousands every year to maintain and use.

Our freedom to travel was stolen from us and sold back to us

“Small price to pay for the freedom to travel”

Well, they pay a small price for their freedom to travel. It's everybody else that has to suffer the externalities of their choices.

Let's tax antisocial behavior, so that these externalities are internalized. Carbon tax, vehicle weight per passenger tax, vehicle volume per passenger tax, etc.

It's not even a freedom to travel... It's a requirement. You want to live in area where you don't need need a car? Only a few cities in America make that reality possible. If you want/have to live/work anywhere else... You need a car. That's not freedom. Also those places where you don't need a car are very expensive to live in.

Its not a lack of rails and light rails... It's a lack of local transportation that's fast and reliable.

People actually use the bus system in Ann Arbor because it runs on time, frequently and is clean. I'm all for a transportation haven but a lot of cities can't even walk and are trying to run.

Detroits Q Line is a good example of running before you can walk. The bus system is god awful. Late. No shows. Generally unreliable. Then they just slapped a thing on top of it that's probably even less reliable...

Best we can do is another lane on the highway. That should fix the problem!

It's almost like people are incapable of comprehending that all types of pollution are important, not just one or the other. Exhaust emissions are bad. Tyre pollution is also bad. Reducing one is a good step. Reducing both would be even better.

This why so many have always said that EVs are not the solution for climate change, they are and always will be a solution for the auto industry.

This (microplastics from wheels) is a well known fact in science for quite some time though.

Man, that would have been great 20 years ago.

Plastic straws are still very harmful for many sea animals and are apart from that entirely unnecessary (unlike tires).

What are the odds that a PR group, well aware of the damage of tyres, spun the focus to target small consumable plastics?

Don't look at cars, look at the image of turtles and straws, seagulls and can rings, and porpoises mistaking bags for jellyfish.

And here I was walking to work trying to suck some coffee through a damp piece of cardboard, while it turns out that the suburban Panzer IV commuters were to blame? What's next?

The thing that picks people up could even have metal wheels as it follows a fixed route, and run on metal roads

Or work from home and walk to the grocery store that's within walking distance.

The wear is drastically different, at least.

Probably easier to develop an alternative too when it doesn't need to support two tons.

The amount of wear on the tires of a bicycle which let's just assume the heaviest person riding the heaviest e-bike would be a few hundred pounds wearing on the tires? Compared to several tons for an auto pressing down on 4 tires it's a LOT less.

If a solution reduces a problem by 99% I'd say that's a damn good solution. Instead here we are, clapping and rejoicing when the car companies say the new model is 5% more fuel efficient or 3% lighter over the ongoing model.

As per the quote below, a car loses about 0.08g of tread per km.

Compared to a car, a bike tyre is about the same diameter, 10% of the width (~20mm), 28% usable tread depth (~2mm), has 50% less wheels, and can travel 10% the distance (~10000km).

This suggests a (very approximate) tread loss of 0.08 * 10% * 28% * 50% / 10% = ~ 0.01g per km for bicycles.

For replacing longer car journeys less typically travelled by bicycle, rail transport is the best solution and removes the issue of tyre wear.

Quoting [deleted] in r/theydidthemath:

Using the same assumptions as above (215/60R16 tires, 7mm of tread loss over 100,000 km), I estimate the loss of tread by volume from each tire as follows:

Cylinder with a diameter of 664 mm and a height of 215 mm has a volume of 74,412 cm3. Cylinder with a diameter of 664-(2x7)=650 mm and a height of 215 mm has a volume of 71,307 cm3. The volume difference between a new and worn out tire is 3105 cm3.

Typical land to sea ratio of tires is 60-70% land, depending on the type of tire. If we go with an about average value of close to 65% tread, we get the lost rubber volume of about 2000 cm3 or 2,000,000 mm3 over a single tires lifespan.

Each revolution of a tire loses about 0,04 mm3 of tread, which, according to Wolfram Alpha, is a bit less than the volume of a medium grain of sand.

If we look at the entire car with 4 tires over a kilometer of road, we get 80 mm3 or about 0,08 grams of tread lost per car per kilometer.

Yeah way to not think about the problem or its multifaceted solutions at all. Just write out the first thing that pops into your head and hit post.